wcrpgfandomcom-20200215-history
6.2.3: Vehicular Systems and Equipment
A vehicle’s systems are what defines one vehicle from another, even within the same chassis, chassis weight and user type. Vehicles in WCRPG are designed to be relatively easy to build and customize and so there are only a few main systems that need to be installed in order for the vehicle to function. A vehicle’s equipment affects it in many of the same ways a character’s equipment affects the character, defining how hard it is to damage the vehicle and what abilities the vehicle has. Vehicles may have several main systems aboard. These systems include: *'Armor': Some vehicles have Armor plates attached to the vehicle's outer surface. Armor is designed for several functions, including passenger safety and mitigation of damage to the chassis in the event of an accident. Armor is also effective at reducing the amount of damage a vehicle receives due to incoming weapons fire. *'Engines': Vehicles derive their power from a single main reactor system, which channels its energy into whatever propulsive system the vehicle uses, be it wheels, repulsors or other types of engines. Regardless of the vehicle type, the Engine will determine how fast the vehicle will move and how fuel efficient the vehicle is. *'Shields': Shields perform many of the same jobs as armor. Shields have two advantages over Armor: they can be added without an HD penalty, and they regenerate over time. On the other hand, Shields are more expensive, they count against the vehicle's accessory count, and they are only available to Starfaring Age craft. Shields aboard vehicles are typically small, one piece combination emitter/charger arrays. *'Weapons': Commercial, Industrial, and (of course) Military Vehicles may incorporate one or more weapons systems aboard. These weapons are included when a vehicle needs an offensive arm for one reason or another, be it to fend off pirates, to provide extra cutting power or to kick butt when needed. Vehicle weapons come in two varieties: guns and missiles. *'Accessories': Accessories are additional systems included in a vehicle to help it perform specific tasks. Some of these tasks include terraforming duties, cargo hauling, passenger ferrying, and weapons delivery systems. Most vehicles can hold only one or two accessory systems, though some can hold many, many more. In addition to these main systems and depending on a vehicle’s chassis, a vehicle may have one or more internal systems, such as sensors or communications arrays. These systems tend to be hardwired into the chassis (meaning they can't be removed or modified) and are included in its cost. These systems can usually be augmented through the addition of accessories. The vehicle's speed governor is considered an internal system and can be removed from a vehicle during the course of game play as discussed in Chapter 6.2). The following Chapter is an overview of these pieces of equipment, what they can do and how much they may cost to add to a vehicle. GMs who are interested in creating their own equipment to be installed on vehicles are more than welcome to create their own (for instructions on how to create equipment, see Chapter 10.2.4.) Armor A vehicle’s Armor consists of several plates attached to its outer hull in order to give it extra protection. Armor is not a required system for vehicles, but many users are still glad to have it despite the additional cost. Vehicles are limited in the amount of Armor they can utilize without having the Reinforced Chassis accessory installed. Armor falls under the category of Defenses, and can be repaired or replaced while the vehicle is not in use. *Type: Defenses/Armor *Gun/Missile Damage Reduction: None *Effects: +1 HD/BHD/FHD per centimeter. Engines Engines provide electrical and propulsive power to a vehicle. They directly determine how fast a vehicle may go during travel and the number of "spaces" the vehicle may move during gridded combat. In addition to being capable of propelling a vehicle faster, higher Classes of Engine are also more fuel efficient than lower Classes (see Chapter 8.1). If character-scale equipment is installed on a vehicle, the Engine provides a constant power source for that equipment (negating the need for any Batteries). Engines come in too many different shapes, sizes and forms to provide a comprehensive list for all technological development ages and vehicle types. The following is a generic Engine listing. It can be adapted for more specific environments by adjusting some of the basic Engine stats, as presented below. Engine *Availability: Variable (First Class only, Metal Age. Fifth Class maximum, Industrial Age). *HD Effect: -2 HD/BHD per Class level *Speed Effect: Double base chassis speed per level MARKER. Need to get this table cleaned up from SFRPG. 1 = 10,000 2 = 30,000 3 = 60,000 4 = 100,000 5 = 150,000 6 = 250,000 7 = 350,000 8 = 700,000 9 = 1,400,000 T = 2,800,000 Divide by 1000 for fighter engine cost. Accessories Accessories are additional systems that can be added to a vehicle’s chassis for additional effects. These really diversify what a particular vehicle is capable of performing. There is no limit to the types of modules that can be added to a vehicle’s chassis, though the number of additional systems is limited by the chassis and user. Each accessory has five basic statistics: *Name: This is what the equipment is called. *Availability: This lists at what level of technological development a species must achieve to be able to use the accessory. *Restriction: This lists any restrictions on the types of vehicles that can use the accessory. *Cost: This lists the cost of the equipment in basic cost points. *Effect: This indicates what the equipment does. Any additional notes on the equipment are included here. Shields Shield emitters are small external arrays that generate a protective barrier around the outer hull of a vehicle, in essence adding an extra layer of armor to its outer skin. Vehicle shield emitters are small enough to include all the equipment they’ll need in one tiny package, which limits the cost of shielding systems aboard vehicles. Naturally, this miniaturization also limits the effectiveness of vehicle shielding, though it is usually enough to protect the vehicle and its occupants from multiple hits. A vehicle may only have one shield system installed unless a "Backup Shield Generator" mount is installed on the vehicle (the generator and the extra shield are counted as separate accessories). Shields fall under the category of Defenses. Basic Shield *Type: Shield *Availability: Starfaring Age *Regeneration: 10% total SHP (1d10 for Class Zero shields), plus Engineer's Applied Relativity sub-Discipline score per minute (ten rounds). *Nebula HPR: Non-functional below Class Six. Minus five Classes effectiveness at Class Six or higher. *Beam DR: None *Projectile DR: None *Effects: None Nebula-Resistant Shields *Type: Shield *Availability: Starfaring Age *Regeneration: 10% total SHP (1d10 for Class Zero shields), plus Engineer's Applied Relativity sub-Discipline score per minute (ten rounds). *Nebula HPR: None *Beam DR: None *Projectile DR: None *Effects: +1 HD per Shield Class if ship is located in a nebula Weapons Some vehicles can carry and utilize various forms of weapons systems. The use of weapons aboard vehicles is covered more in depth in Chapter 9.3. Weapons come in two main varieties: beam weapons (which fire in constant streams) and projectile weapons (where a physical object is shot at the target). The following generic weapons are available for use on vehicles. Each has the following statistics: *Name: What the weapon is called. *Availability: At what level of technological development the weapon is available for use. *Type: The general kind of weapon being described (a beam or projectile weapon). *Recharge: The amount of time that must pass before the weapon can be used again once used. Weapons with a recharge of 1 turn may be used again on the next combat round. *Range: The maximum distance a target may be from the firing vehicle in order for the weapon to be effective. *Falloff: The amount of damage lost or hit difficulty increased by each range increment the firing vehicle is away from its target. *Effects: Various sundry effects the weapon may have or cause (for a list of general examples of weapons effects, see Chapter 10.2.4.) *Class: This lists a specific Class of the weapon in question. *Basic Cost: This is the amount the weapon adds to the vehicle's overall cost, before the vehicle's cost multiplier is applied. *Damage: This lists the amount of damage the weapon applies to a target upon a successful hit. *Options: This is a list of features that may be added to the weapon, which change one or more basic characteristics of the weapon. A weapon may only have one of the options listed below the weapon, if any are selected at all. A "pure" Wing Commander game will tend to use only the Laser Cannon and Basic Missile weapons systems without options, at least for starfaring races (for non-starfaring races, the "Slugthrower" is the recommended weapon to place on a vehicle). These other weapons, as well as the options that go with them, are meant merely as examples of what a creative GM might decide to implement in the game, and as a means of adding a little variety to the game itself. Beam Weapons Flamethrower *Availability: Metal Age *Type: Beam *Recharge: 2 rounds *Range: 5 (Metal Age), 10 (Industrial Age), 15 (Starfaring Age) *Falloff: +5 HD per range increment *Effects: Causes Fire Damage to all targets hit. Cannot be used in space or underwater. *Options: Spread-Fire; Industrial Age, -1 range, spread 1/2 damage (round down) to all targets (including friendlies) in a 45-degree cone ahead of the weapon. "Greek Fire"; Metal Age, 1.5* cost, 1.5* damage, doubles DC required to put out the fire. Napalm; Industrial Age, -1 range, 2* cost, can set metal-skinned objects on fire. Laser Cannon *Availability: Industrial Age *Type: Beam *Recharge: 1 round *Range: Unlimited *Falloff: -10 Damage per range increment (minimum 9) *Effects: None *Options: Spread-Beam; falloff -15 damage per range increment, 1.1* cost, fires in 45-degree cone ahead of the weapon, spreads 1/2 total damage (round down) to all targets in firing cone. Polarized Beam; falloff -5 damage per range increment, 2* cost, 1.5* damage Maser; 1.5* cost, bypasses Defenses. Count as character-scale crew damage, no damage to vehicle/starship. Character may make Reflex Save for 1/2 damage. Tachyon Cannon *Availability: Starfaring Age *Type: Beam *Recharge: 1 round *Range: Unlimited *Falloff: -15 Damage per range increment (minimum 10) *Effects: None *Options: Tachyon Blaster; 3* cost, 2* damage, bypasses shields Tachyon Pulse; 1.5* cost, no damage but disables all target systems for number of seconds equal to damage Projectile Weapons Slugthrower *Availability: Metal Age *Type: Projectile *Recharge: 2 rounds *Range: 3 (Metal Age), 9 (Industrial Age), 15 (Starfaring Age) *Magazine: 10 *Falloff: +10 HD per range increment *Effects: None *Options: Chain Shot; 1.1* cost, -1 range, 0.75* damage, causes 1d10% Engine damage unless target vehicle is Industrial or Starfaring Age. Grape Shot; 1.1* cost, -2 range, 0.5* damage, causes d% HP damage to one target occupant if target vehicle offers No Cover. Hot Shot; 1.5* cost, 1.5* damage, causes normal Fire Damage (1d10 character-scale Lethal Damage and two Wounds per round) to target. Rifled Barrel; 2* cost, 1.5* damage, +3 range. Basic (Dumb-Fire) Missile *Availability: Industrial Age *Type: Projectile *Recharge: 1 round *Range: 15 *Magazine: 1 *Falloff: +5 HD per range increment *Effects: None *Options: Kinetic Energy; 0.5* cost, 1.5* damage, +20 HD per range increment. Seeker; 1.2* cost, 0.8* damage, re-acquires target at +10 HD in event of miss. Friend-or-Foe; 1.1* cost, 0.9* damage, if misses, automatically targets next enemy craft with lower Initiative (or friendly craft with malfunctioning communications). If no such craft exist, weapon misses. Image Recognition; 1.5* cost, +2 HD per range increment, re-acquires target at +5 HD in event of miss, increasing by +5 HD on subsequent misses. Electromagnetic Pulse Missile; 1.2* cost, no damage but disables target for number of seconds equal to damage. Anti-Radiation; 1.3* cost, 0.75* damage, causes 1d% damage to target's sensors. Radar-Guided; 1.4* cost, 0.6* damage, no range increment HD fall-off. Directed Energy; 1.2* cost, -5 HD to target, does damage equal to equivalent Class Laser Cannon, counts as Laser damage. Acoustic Guidance; sea/air only, 1.25* cost, 0.8* damage, re-acquires target at +10 HD in event of miss, removes HD bonus to Submarines. Wire Guidance; land/sea/air only, 0.75* cost, 1.25* damage, no range increment HD fall-off, firing vehicle cannot change headings or speed in the round before the missile is fired. Can re-target in subsequent rounds if it misses, but must maintain speed and heading. Supercavitational Propulsion; sea vehicles only; 2.5* cost, no range increment HD fall-off. Plasma Cannon *Availability: Starfaring Age *Type: Projectile *Recharge: 3 rounds *Range: 15 *Magazine: 1 *Falloff: +5 HD per range increment *Effects: Cannot be used in planetary atmosphere *Options: Hot Plasma Cannon; 2* cost, 1.5* damage. Eco-Safe Plasma; 1.1* cost, can be used in planetary atmosphere. Ion Bolt; 0.5* cost, can be used in atmosphere, 1/2 damage, disables one system at random (use system damage list in Chapter 9.3 to select; roll again on crew/officer damage). ---- NEXT: 6.3 Vehicle Catalog PREVIOUS: 6.2.2 Vehicle Users TOP ---- Category:Drafts